In an attempt to craft the most valuable guide imaginable, we went kinda crazy with this section. Clocking in at over 200 pages (just over two-fifths of the total pages in the Limited Edition guide), the Tour of the Capital Wasteland was to serve two main purposes: 1: To allow you to instantly locate an area you’re needing help with, and 2: To reveal the items available, so you can judge whether a sortie is worth the risk of possible (and almost always grisly) death. This took around two months of hard graft to achieve, but the results were definitely worth it: You have a complete atlas of the entire game world at your fingertips.

Much of this book (196 pages, in fact) is taken up with a thorough and meticulous exploration of the Main and Miscellaneous Quests you can begin at any point during your adventure. Segmented into dozens of logical parts, the strategy guide has some key advantages for getting the most (or just the very basic facts) from any point in the game, whether you’re exploring the basement of Tenpenny Tower, or searching for your father and finding out more about your upbringing, and his plans for the future. Expect copious amounts of advice throughout these chapters, which includes the following elements:

Although not the largest chapter in this gargantuan-sized strategy guide, this is perhaps the one that packs the largest concentration of thoroughly enjoyable and tactical goodness. If you’re wanting to know what just rammed into you and defiled your corpse after an ill-fated Wasteland wander, this is the chapter to peruse. Basically, you’ve got all the information on every single living entity in D.C.’s smoking remains, and the surrounding area. Rest assured; there’s stats aplenty here.

Delving a little deeper into the guide, and moving chronologically through the pages, we begin with the Training chapter. Over 40 pages are dedicated to preparation for surviving and thriving in the Capital Wasteland, and there’s an incredible amount of useful detail for both character generation, and general overall tactics. It all begins with the Primary Statistics; the seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes that form the basis of your avatar. As these statistics influence other skills, we reveal exactly how everything is inter-related, and the precise modifications a higher or lower statistic brings into play. Want to know what skills your Charisma influences, and by what amount? Then consult this section. Next up is a section on Derived Statistics; a set of values automatically determined when you choose your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. values. These include how much weight you can carry, your chance to inflict a critical hit, how your health is influenced, your resistance to damage, Action Points in V.A.T.S. combat, and more. Say you want the most Action Points for your takedowns; you’ll find out the statistic you need to raise, by how much, and what modifiers and Perks you can use and choose to help augment this statistic.

Fallout 3 is the 67th Strategy guide you’ve authored. How did you get into this business?
Bear in mind that my body of work includes everything from The Official Strategy Guide to Gex: Enter the Gecko, Akuji the Heartless, and Star Wars: Demolition to Half-Life 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I started off in the UK, working for some defunct video-game magazines that no one has heard of (Maximum, for example). I then fled the UK and landed a job at the part-fraternity, part-sanitarium known as GameFan magazine in 1996. During that time, I helped out with GameFan Books, wrote a guide for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, then helped start up a magazine called Gamers’ Republic, and also wrote a well-received guide for Metal Gear Solid shortly before that venture imploded. In 2000, I decided to go freelance, and work for a “proper” strategy guide publisher, and I’ve been working on Prima guides ever since.

A few weeks back, we introduced you to David Hodgson, the author of our Fallout 3 Strategy Guide. Over at the Prima Games Author Blog, David has posted a new entry (this time minus the spoiler tags) detailing the different sections of the strategy guide and providing background on the amount of work that went into making it.

For your reading pleasure, you can check it out below. In the coming days/weeks, you can expect more details about the guide…

Fallout, then Fall Over: Guide Creation Blog

Part 02: Meanderings and Overview

I initially received my first build of the game on May 25th, which is when all major social activity (never a major concern for a strategy guide author) was curtailed, and my trip into the Capital Wasteland began. After booting up the PC and 360 versions, I began an intensive, week-long “cursory” play-session, and spoke at length with Pete Hines and Jeff Gardiner at Bethesda about what they wanted the reader to gain from the guide. They deluged me with pile after pile of internal wiki information, and allowed me to bombard the team with a variety of questions, most of which were variations on the “yes, I just discovered this, and it’s freakin’ awesome” theme.

I don’t know whether we’ve ever mentioned him, or if he has said so himself, or if it’s already known, but David Hodgson wrote the Fallout 3 strategy guide for us that will be coming out from Prima (N. America) and Future (Europe). Once again, another “phonebook” guide.

Google Alerts just let me know David recently did a blog post over at the Prima web site about the experience, complete with a whole slew of non-spoilers. Here’s an excerpt:

But if you’re wanting to explore every nook, cranny, and small wasteland [SPECIFIC SETTLEMENT TITLE REMOVED] out in the middle of a blasted heath, you’ll need to free up a seriously large amount of time; more than mere weeks: [NOPE, CAN’T SAY], in fact. Fortunately, these expeditions can be performed in [A DIFFERENT, AND SUITABLY VAGUE MANNER], allowing you to savor the experience, as well as picking and choosing where you’d like to visit, and how savaged you’d like to get at the talons of a [REALLY RATHER COOL CREATURE I CAN’T MENTION].

We’ll be working with David again. There isn’t anyone here that worked on this project with him that wasn’t completely impressed with his professionalism and fanaticism in getting this guide done. He was tireless and did an outstandng job.

Matt and I have talked about getting something together with him for the blog, perhaps an interview where he’s talks to some degree about the process without ruining the game for everyone. After all, the guy is a walking Fallout 3 spoiler at this point. In the meantime, head over to read what else he had to say.

As Kotaku reader Kain The Undead recently discovered, pre-ordering Fallout 3 at Best Buy will score you one of these Nuka-Cola magnetic bottle openers. In addition to the bottle opener, you’ll also get a coupon to save $5 on the Fallout 3 Strategy Guide. You can pre-order online (look for bottle opener “Special Offer”), or simply visit your local Best Buy store.